Spring seated construction for upholstered furniture



July 23 1957 J. D. CALDER 2,800,168 I SPRING SEATED CONSTRUCTIGN FORUPHOLSTERED FURNITURE Filed Iarchj, 1956 Inventor JAMES B. CALDER.

United States Patent SPRING SEATED CONSTRUCTlON FOR UPHOLSTEREDFURNITURE James Donald Calder, Frenchmens Bay, Ontario, Canada, assignorto Harry Sklar, Joseph Sklar, Samuel Sklar, and Louis Sklar ApplicationMarch 5, 1956, Serial No. 569,468

4 Claims. (Cl. 155-179) This invention relates to spring seatingconstruction for upholstered furniture.

Over a period of years, linearly extending sinuous or zig-zag springshave largely replaced coil spring construction in upholstered furniture.In terms of seat construction, such springs extend between the back andfront rails of the furniture and are prestressed to provide a yieldableseat when under load. Two difliculties present themselves in theemployment of such springs for this purpose in providing a practical andeconomical structure; viz., providing a yielding forward edge on theseat and avoiding dead bottom effect, i. e. an unyielding seat onceunder load when accordingly does not provide the effect of spring depth.

Numerous attempts have been made to provide a yieldable forward edgeemploying such springs by forming what may be termed a bellows-fold atthe front or an addition to the spring which in effect provides abellowsfold, but in most cases there results a receding of the forwardedge of the seat when under load whereas attempts to eliminate deadbottom effect have usually culminated in complicated and expensivestructures.

The present invention provides spring seating construction employingthis type of spring in a relatively simple structure which provides apractical yieldable forward edge for a seat and a structure throughwhich dead bottom effect is eliminated, thus to provide a seat ofpractical economical construction with full spring depth.

According to the invention, the spring units which are inter-tied in asimple conventional manner to provide the whole seat generally comprisea unit having a bellowsfold at one end to constitute that portion of theunit disposed at the front of the seat, the apex of the bellowsfoldbeing disposed inwardly of the front rail of the seat, the upperextremity of the bellows-fold constituting the front edge of the seatand the lower extremity'of the bellows-fold constituting a pivotalanchoring point for securement to the frame in combination with a secondzig-zag spring arched to extend from an anchoring point on the frame andsecured to the apex of the bellowsfold, said spring members forming saidunit being secured together intermediate the linear extent of said unit,the latter formed by said spring members extending between the front andrear frame to form with like intertied units a spring constructionresistant to recession of the front seat edge and to dead bottom effectwhen said units are under compression load. Preferably said units aredesigned for a seat but may be employed as a backrest for suchfurniture.

The invention will be clearly understood by reference to the followingdetailed specification taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a cross-section taken through a simple furniture base frameshowing the spring unit construction applied thereto.

Fig. 2 is a plan view showing the manner in which 2,800,168 PatentedJuly 23, 1957 the spring units are inter-tied and secured at the ends ofthe frame.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary detailed perspective view of a spring unit toillustrate the manner in which the two spring elements forming the unitare interconnected; and

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing an alternative arrangement ofspring construction to form a spring unit.

Referring to the drawings, A indicates a simple frame foran upholsteredpiece of seating furniture and B indicates one of the spring unitsaccording to the present invention employed as an inter-tied group toform the yieldable seat. In the preferred construction, the unit iscomprised by a linear zig-zag spring 10 having a free rear end 11 andwhich is formed at the front end with a bellows-fold 12 having an apex13, a forward free end 14, and a folded extremity 15 which forms thefront edge of the seat. The free end 14 is anchored by a conventionalanchoring clip 16 to the front frame piece 17 while the rearward freeend 11 is designed to bear against the inner face of the rearward framepiece 18 of frame A being secured inwardly of its free end to the frameby means of an anchoring clip 19.

The second spring element of the unit B comprises a linearly extendingzig-zag spring 20 which is anchored on the frame preferably to theforward frame. piece 17 on its inner face by means of a clip 21 which isdisposed somewhat towards the lower extremity of frame piece 17 and itis pre-stressed or arched to extend below spring 10 and in particular issecured to the apex 13 of its bellows-fold 12 by means of a conventionalspring clip 22 and is secured also adjacent to its free rearward end 23to spring 10 by means of clips 24 and 25 at a point intermediate thefront and rear ends of spring 10. This point is chosen in accordancewith the degree of deflection desired when under load and in combinationwith the location of the point of anchorage between clip 19 and spring10, which latter may be varied, the effect of spring depth under load ischosen. This may be further varied by employing selected gauges ofspring as may be desired.

The spring 20 effectively reinforces the spring 10 in such manner thatthe connection between it and the apex 13 of bellows-fold 12 has theresult of resisting the normal tendency of the front edge 15 of spring10 to recede when the spring is subjected to load, thus providing for anormal depression or vertical flexing of the forward edge of the seat asmay be understood by reference to the dotted line position of the springunit as shown in Fig. 1. Moreover, the spring 20 also functions to avoiddead bottom effect since it is pre-stressed and anchored at anappropriate point intermediate the ends of spring 10 and thus, incombination with the rearward anchoring of spring 10 at a chosen pointinwardly of the free end 11 thereof, will operate to produce apredetermined degree of flexing of the whole unit such that it does notgive to a point where it will not yield further under load or rigoroustestwhich would otherwise give dead bottom effect but, under load itgives the effect of further or full spring depth. This is completelyachieved solely by two simple linearly extending zig-zag spring unitsinterconnected in a simple manner and anchored also in a simple manneron the base frame. Y

1 As shown in Fig. 2, the units B are inter-tied by conventional springtyping clips 26 while the end spring units 13-1 of identicalconstruction are secured to the end frame piece 27 of frame A by meansof coil tension spring 28. The overall effect, therefore, is a verysubstantial seat which will not recede rearwardly to any substan ialextent when under load and in which the units B will not tend to swaylaterally when under load.

In the alternative form of construction shown in Fig. 4,

the units B are comprised by the linearly extending zigzag spring 29which is pre-stressed and extends between the anchoring point 30 on thefront of the frame and the anchoring point constituted by the clip 31securing it to the rear frame piece 18. In this construction, the secondspring element 32 is secured at its inner end to spring 29 at the points33 and 34, which spring is formed with the bellows-fold 35, the apex ofwhich is secured to spring 29 by suitable clip 36 and the free end ofthis spring is anchored as at '37 by the clip 38 on the forward framepiece 17. The same effect is thus achieved whether the longer of the twosprings constitutes the bottom member extending between the frame pieces17 and 18 or whether it constitutes the top member and includes thebellowsfold as well, as in the case in the showing of Fig. 1. In bothcases, there results a very simple spring unit composed merely of twosprings of the same character so connected and mounted as to achieveeconomically a practical full spring depth seat with a yieldable frontseat edge.

It -is obvious, of course, that units according to the invention couldbe grouped and arranged to form a yieldable back for the seat whereinthe front seat edge may becomethe yieldable top edge of the back.However, the yieldable back of seating furniture does not require thespring depth required in the seat due to the fact that it assumes alesser load and other constructions may, therefore, be usefully employedin a back support.

I claim:

1. A spring unit for a seating frame employed with other similar unitsinter-tied to form a combined spring base, said unit comprising a pairof linear zag-zag spring members, the first of said members having abellows-fold at one end to constitute that portion of the unit having ayieldable edge, said bellows-fold having an apex to be disposed inwardlyof the frame of the seating construction, the upper extremity of thebellows-fold constituting the yieldable edge and the lower extremity ofthe bellowsfold constituting an anchoring element for securement to theframe, the second spring member being arched to extend from an anchoringpoint on the frame inwardly of the first spring member, and securedintermediate its extent to the apex of the bellows-fold of the firstspring member, said spring members being secured together intermediatethe linear extent of said unit, the latter extending between spacedapart, opposed members of said seating frame to form with likeinter-tied units a spring construction resistant to recession of theyieldable edge in the axial direction of said unit and to dead bottomefiect when said units are under compression load.

2. A spring unit for a seating frame employed with other similar unitsinter-tied to form a combined spring base, said unit comprising a pairof outer and inner linear zig-zag spring members, the outer of saidmembers extending from one portion of the frame to an opposed portionthereof and having a bellows-fold at one end thereof to constitute thatportion of the unit having a yieldable edge, said bellows-fold having anapex to be disposed inwardly of the frame of the seating construction,the upper extremity of the bellows-fold constituting the yieldable edgeand the lower extremity of the bellows-fold constituting an anchoringelement for securement of that end of said member to the frame, saidinner spring member being arched to extend from an anchoring point onthe frame inwardly of the outer spring member and being securedintermediate its extent to the apex of the bellows-fold of the outerspring member and secured at a second point to said outer spring memberintermediate the bellows-fo1d and the opposite end ofsaid outerspringmember, said unit together with said corresponding units beingdesigned to'be inter-tied to form a composite spring constructionresistant to recession of the yieldable edge in the axial direction ofeach unit and resistant to dead bottom effect when said units are undercompression load.

3. A spring unit for a seating frame employed with other similar unitsinter-tied to form a combined spring base, said unit comprising a pairof outer and inner linear zig-zag spring members, the outer of saidmembers having a bellows-fold at one end to constitute that portion ofthe unit having a yieldable edge, said bellows-fold having an apex to bedisposed inwardly of the frame of the seating construction, the upperextremity of the bellows-fold constituting the yieldable edge and thelower extremity of the bellows-fold constituting an anchoring elementfor securement to the frame, said inner spring member being arched toextend from an anchoring point on the frame to an anchoring point on anopposed portion of the frame, the apex of the bellows-fold of the outerspring member being secured to said arched'inner member at a pointintermediate the extent of the latter and the end of said outer memberopposed to the anchored end being secured to said inner spring member ata point intermediate its anchored ends, said unit together with saidcorresponding units being designed to be intertied to form a compositespring'construction resistant to recession of the yieldable edge in theaxial direction of each unit and resistant to dead bottom effect Whensaid units are under compression load.

4. Spring seating construction formed from a plurality of inter-tiedzig-zag springs, each comprising a unit having a bellows-fold at one endto constitute that portion of the unit disposed at the front of theseat, the apex of the bellows-fold being disposed inwardly of the frontrail of the seat, the upper extremity of the bellows-fold constitutingthe front edge of the seat and the lower extremity of the bellows-foldconstituting a pivotal anchoring point forsecurement to the frame incombination with a second z ig-zag spring arched to extend from ananchoring point on the front frame member and secured adjacent itsopposite end to the first mentioned Zig-zag spring ata pointintermediate its extent, said second zig-zag spring being secured to theapex of the bellows-fold and forming the unit resistant to recession ofthe front seat edge and dead bottom ,eflect when said spring is undercompression load.

References Cited in the file of this patent FOREIGN PATENTS GreatBritain Nov. 12, 1952 Great Britain Nov. 12, 1952

